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TV review: Horizon: Dippy and the Whale; Who Do You Think You Are?

We may not love the blue whale as much as Dippy, but the new centrepiece of the Natural History Museum commands our respect

Andrew Billen

July 14 2017, 12:01am, The Times

The skeleton of the whale in Hintze Hall took two years to reassembleNATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM

Horizon: Dippy and the Whale BBC Two★★★★☆

Who Do You Think You Are? BBC One★★★☆☆

If you go down to the Natural History Museum today, you can be sure of a big surprise — but only if you did not watch last night’s Horizon: Dippy and the Whale. Dippy the dinosaur, the plaster cast of a diplodocus that has reared over visitors to the museum’s central, now “Hintze”, hall since 1979, has gone. Instead hangs the skeleton of an unnamed blue whale. Things change. The central hall was a menagerie of sperm whales and elephants. Animals go in and out of fashion.

Maybe Jurassic Park did for Dippy, making dinosaurs light entertainment. The museum has hung Bluey, as no one yet calls her, in a…